E/CN.4/2002/73/Add.1 page 4 9. The Department of Worship explained that it had no official statistics on religious communities. 10. The Special Rapporteur collected the following non-governmental statistics on the numerical size of religious communities: Catholics 88 per cent of the population; Protestants 7 per cent; Muslims 1.5 per cent; Jews 1 per cent; Others 2.5 per cent. 11. These figures clearly identify a strong Catholic majority and minorities belonging to religions of the Book. 12. Attention is nevertheless drawn to the following points: (a) These statistics reflect membership of a religious community, but not necessarily the practice of a religion; (b) They do not provide information on known religious minorities (such as the Armenian Apostolic, Orthodox and Buddhist communities), on numerically small minorities (Baha’is, Afro-Amerindians, etc.), on indigenous beliefs or on non-belief; (c) They do not provide information on diversity within religions, particularly the Protestant, Jewish and Muslim religions; (d) Estimates relating to religious minorities, especially Muslims, and indigenous peoples are often contradictory. I. LEGAL ASPECTS OF FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND BELIEF A. Constitutional provisions 1. Federal Constitution 13. The Constitution of Argentina, as amended on 22 August 1994, guarantees freedom of religion and belief and freedom to manifest one’s religion or belief. 14. Article 14 of the Constitution provides that “All inhabitants of the Nation shall be entitled to the following rights, in accordance with the laws that govern their exercise, namely: … the right freely to practise their religion …”.

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